Unitary tubular electrical contact and wiring terminal therefor



March 1954 A. c. PETERS UNITARY TUBULAR ELECTRICAL CONTACT AND WIRING TERMINAL THEREFOR Filed Jan. 17, 1950.

\NVENTOR'. ARTHUR C. PETERS,

BY Fania u ATTORNEY- Patented Mar. 23, 1954 UNITARY TUBULAR ELECTRICAL CONTACT AND WIRING TERMINAL THEREFOR Arthur C. Peters, Midlothian, Ill., assignor to Cinch Manufacturing Corporation, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application January 17, 1950, Serial No. 138,946

3 Claims.

a face of an insulating support when the terminal I is attached thereto. Such prior terminals consist of a relatively long tubular contacting prong on one side of the bead and a relatively short attaching portion, in the nature of a tubular eyelet, on the other "side of the bead. -Attachment of such terminals to the insulating support has been effected by upsetting the end of the tubular body adjacent the bead outwardly over the insulating support.

With such prior tubular contacts electrical con nection with the connected conductors has been effected in either of two manners: (1) by inserting the conductor core into the tubular contact from the attaching eyelet end and soldering the core to the contact end of the terminal, or (2) by attaching a separate soldering lug to the attaching eyelet portion of the terminal and soldering the conductor to such lug. In order to secure good electrical conduction the soldering lug is usually soldered to the tubular terminal in addition to being embraced by the upset eyelet attaching portion.

In the first of the above described cases the direct electrical connection of the conductor to theterminal is desirable but in soldering the conductor core to the contact end of the tubular I presents contacting diificulties when the tubular terminal is inserted in its mating socket part. In the second of the above described prior installations, irregularities in the contact end of the terminal are eliminated, but the connection is elongated tubular contact portion, an intermediate attaching portion adapted to engage opposite faces of a support and an integral soldering terminal portion remote from the contact portion.

More particularly, the invention aims to provide an improved tubular contact or terminal that may be readily and economically rolled from a preformed strip of sheet metal stock and provided with a separate integral contacting portion and an apertured soldering terminal portion.

The above and other objects of the invention will be more readily understood by persons skilled in the art to which the invention relates from a consideration of the accompanying drawings and. annexed specification illustrating and describing a preferred embodiment of the invention.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is an enlarged side elevation of my improved unitary tubular contact and wiring terminal as applied to an insulated support;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the installation illustrated in Fig. l as viewed at right angles to Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of my improved tubular terminal as applied to a support;

Fig. 4 is a greatly enlarged vertical sectional view as taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the improved unitary tubular contact and wiring terminal prior to attachment to a support;

Fig. .6 is a'fragmentary plan view of a strip of fabricated sheet metal stock from which the contact of Fig. 6 is formed; and

Fig. V7' is an edge elevation of the strip of stock shown in Fig. 6.

Referring to the drawings, the combined tubular contact and wiring terminal comprises a tubular sleeve l0 formed from a single piece of sheet metal stock and shaped to provide an elongated cylindrical contact portion H extendinglongitudinally from one end thereof, a cylindrical wiring terminal portion I2 adjacent an opposite end thereof, and an intermediate attaching portion [3. v r

The elongated contact portion H preferably is of cylindrical shape and of uniform cross section throughout its length and is provided with a longitudinal butt edge seam l4 as a result of rolling the tubular contact around a mandrel (not shown) as hereinafter described. One end of the metal bank, from which the contact is formed, may be slightly bevelled as at 15 along opposite sides to permit curling the end of the tubular contact portion l inwardly to provide a rounded apertured nose end facilitating insertion of the contact portion In in its cooperating mating socket part, as will be understood by those skilled in the art.

The intermediate attaching portion 13 comprises an outwardly extending circumferential bead l8 in the sleeve H3 at the inner end of the contact portion I! and spaced from the rounded nose end l6 a predetermined distance according to the depth of the socket portion of the cooperatirg mating part with which the contact is to be used. This bead provides shoulder or stop means adapted to engage one face of an apertured support S and limit movement of the contact in one direction relative thereto.

This intermediate attaching portion E3 of the contact also includes radially extendable wall sections of the sleeve Hl spaced from the bead l8 and adapted to be displaced outwardly for ergagement with the upper face of the support S to securely attach the tubular contact to the support.

As herein illustrated, the outwardly eXten-daile portions of the attaching portion i3 comprise weakened wall sections o the sleeve iii abo"'e the bead l8 as formed by circumferentially disposed apertures 2|. These apertures 2| are preferably substantially round holes and the intervening wall sections 20 have concaved side edges, the weakest section of which is in the plane passed through the centers of the aperture 21. Thus, when opposite ends of the sleeve ll! are subjected to end pressure the weakened wall sections .26 will be collapsed or folded outwardly providing tabs 22 adapted to engage and grip the rp -er face of the support S, as shown in Figs. 1 to 4.

The end portion [2 of the sleeve I9, opposite the contact portion ii and beyond the attaching portion I3, provides a cylindrical wiring and soldering terminal for the conductor to be electrically connected to the tubular contact. Preferably the side walls of the sleeve H! are provided with o posed conductor-receiving apertures 2'3 through which a conductor core C may be looped for attachment to the wiring terminal portion of the sleeve. Preferably the core C is soldered to the terminal for good electrical conduction and such solder connection 25 may either be disposed on the outside or within the sleeve H! as desired.

To prevent collapsing the wall sections of the .wiring terminal portion 2 during the application of end pressure to upset the wall sections 20 of the attaching portion 13, the conductor-receiving openings 25 are of less circumferential dimension than the openings 2| so that the intervening wall sections 25 of the wiring terminal portion l2 are stronger and offer greater resistance to deformation under end pressure than the wall section 26. Preferably, the apertures 25 are elongated and are spaced apart a greater distance than the apertures 2 I.

The improved combined tubular contact and wiring terminal is advantageously formed by rolllations of solder, is avoided. As will be apparent,

the im roved terminal may be a plied to a support S as readily as the prior terminals first above described.

While I have illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of the invention I do not intend to be restricted to the details thereof as the scope of the invention is best defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A tubular electrical contact and wiring terminal comprising a sh et metal cylindrical sleeve ha ing one longitudinal split extending from end to end thereof and provided intermediate its ends with an outwardly extending circunferential bead defining on one side thereof a tuular contact portion 0 predetermined length, said sleeve being provided with circumferentially spaced apertures adjacent to and spaced from said bead in a first zone on the side thereof opposite said contact portion and providing therebetween wall sections bucklable radially outwardly under longitudinal load, and said sleeve being extended beyond said apertures and bucklable wall sections to provide an integral tubular wiring terminal portion, said terminal portion in a second zone outwardly spaced from said first 'aper tured zone being laterally apertured to provide for passage of a wire transversely therethrou'gh and being stronger at said second apertured zone than said first apertured zone so that said second zone can transmit buckling pressure-to said first zone without collapse of said wire receiving apertures.

2. A tubular electrical contact and wiring terminal comprising a sheet metal cylindrical sleeve provided intermediate its ends with an outwardly extending circumferential bead defining on one side thereof a tubular contact portion of predetermined length, said sleeve being provided with circumferentially spaced apertures adjacent 'to and spaced from said bead on the side thereof opposite said contact portion and providing therebetween wall sections bucklable radially outwardly under longitudinal load, and said sleeve being ex tended beyond said apertures and bucklable wall sections to provide an integral tubular wiring terminal portion having lateral wire receiving apertures therein and having wall portions intermediate the apertures thereof of greater width and resistance to buckling under longitudinal load than the wall sections of said intermediate attaching portion.

3. A tubular electrical contact and wiring terminal comprising a sheet metal cylindrical sleeve provided intermediate its ends with an outwardly extending circumferential bead defining on one side thereof a tubular contact portion of predetermined length, said sleeve being provided with circumferentially spaced apertures adjacent to and spaced from said bead on the side thereof opposite said contact portion and providing therebetween wall sections bucklable radially outwardly under longitudinal load, and said sleeve being extended beyond said apertures and collapsible wall sections to provide an integral tubular wiring terminal portion provided with opposed conductor-receiving apertures, said conductor-receiving apertures being collectively of less dimension circumferentially of said sleeve than the apertures of said attaching portion whereby said Wiring terminal portion has greater resistance to buckling when subjected to end pressure than said attaching portion.

ARTHUR C. PETERS.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Re. 2 1,058 698,770 1,900,099 2,017,421 2,145,949 2,273,099 2,406,079 2,464,405

Name Date Huck Apr. 25, 1935 Weibezahl Apr. 29, 1902 Ferguson Mar. 7, 1933 Post Oct. 15, 1935 Obszarny Feb. 7, 1939 Gilbert Feb. 17, 1942 Krueger Aug. 20, 1946 Knauf, Jr Mar. 15, 1949 

